essay
Personality and structure: political acquiesence in Truk
Induced political change in the Pacific : a symposium • Honolulu • Published In 1965 • Pages: 17-39
By: Swartz, Marc J..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article, Swartz offers a complex political and psychological explanation for the Chuuk acquiescence to foreign political domination. Although they had a reputation for extreme hostility against outsiders, the Chuuk gave in to German sovereignity without a fight. Why? Swartz argues that traditional chiefs lacked the authority to enforce sanctions both within and between lineages. If a chief tried to enforce a sanction too aggressively, and thereby putting himself above everyone else, he would jeapardize his own welfare upon retirement. Instead sanctions within a lineage were supernaturally enforced by ancestral spirits who would inflict disease on anyone who violated lineage morals. No such sanctions operated for territorial chiefs of interlineage organizations. Therefore aggression against outsiders went unpunished, which according to Swartz caused the Chuuk considerable anxiety. As outsiders the Germans avoided the opprobrium of haughtiness when carrying out pacification, and helped to relieve the Chuuk of their anxiety by providing a necessary external agent of punishment.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Drives and emotions
- Adjustment processes
- Ethics
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Lineages
- External relations
- Sanctions
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Chuuk
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1999
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Oceania
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Micronesia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 1997
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1955-1956
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1885-1956
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Marc J. Swartz
- Pacific Science Congress (10th : 1961 : Honolulu, Hawaii)
- Held at the University of Hawaii and sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, and the University of Hawaii
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 39)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 68003796
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Trukese (Micronesian people)